Royal Mail man will lose job after drink driving home from Sutton

Court Reporter

A drink driver who clipped a kerb and burst his tyre on the way home from Sutton has been banned for two years, a court heard.

Richard Yates was found slumped over the wheel of his Citreon C5, on the A617, near Mansfield, in the early hours of July 1.

A test revealed he had 97 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Treve Lander, mitigating, said: “The great shame here is that this journey didn’t need to have taken place.”

He said Yates, who has no previous convictions, had decided to drive home after a barbeque at his partner’s home in Sutton.

He said the former soldier had been grieving the recent loss of his still-born grandson, and would now lose his job with the Royal Mail.

Yates, 44, of Derby Road, Chesterfield, admitted drink driving when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

He was fined £500 and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a £50 government surcharge. He was banned for 24 months, but was offered a drink drive rehabilitation course, which will cut it by 25 per cent, if he completes it before November 2019.